Our world continues to grow in complexity…and opportunity for those who are open to learn.

Most of us would not prefer to live back in the stone age or even early American life where things seemed to be less complicated.  However, the challenge for all of us who desire to be best we can be at home, at work and in our communities, is are we open to learn?

“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.” — Alvin Toffler

As we continue our journey to build and strengthen our character, maintaining a mindset that is open to learn will be a great asset as we work to reach our full potential and be a positive example to those around us.

The facts are clear that if we don’t remain open to learn, we will fall behind in our relationships, our careers, and our ability to impact this world. However, we all face a few common obstacles in remaining open to learn: (1) It is simply much more comfortable to just stick with what we know as it takes extra effort to learn new things (2) When we try to learn new things, we often reveal a few of our weaknesses which can be emotionally tough for us to endure (3) Learning new things may show us that we were not effective (or just plain wrong) with our prior choices which can be a difficult truth to admit.

We live in the most exciting of times as the pace of change and transformation is almost unimaginable and as we remain open to learn, we will discover opportunities to be the best we can be for those we care about most.  Here are a few thoughts to encourage all of us to remain open to learn:

• We remain youthful. It is quite often the youth of a generation that drives new thinking and progress.  As we remain open to learn, we regain a bit of youthful excitement for the opportunity of life even if our muscles and bones don’t feel too youthful.
• We gain wisdom. As we remain open to learn, we should not dismiss the fact that prior experiences are still valuable in order to minimize the risk of re-learning mistakes from the past as we journey into new areas. Wisdom, gained from the past, is still extremely relevant in times of great change.
• We remain relevant. We run the risk of being marginalized and left behind in a rapidly changing world if we don’t remain open to learn. We remain relevant to those around us as we participate and learn in our ever-changing world.
• We become rich. “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” Ben Franklin. As we learn new things, we will live a rich life in which money is not the currency and it can’t be taken away without our permission.

As we remain open to learn with the support of principles like courage, commitment and sacrifice, we will build and strengthen our character and Character Creates Opportunity for us to be our best for those around us.